Giyani Water Project Remains Unfinished Despite Minister Mnchunu’s Promises

“Nandoni to Nsami bulk pipeline: overall project to be completed by November 2022.”

The above is an excerpt from a statement issued by the Department of Water and Sanitation’s Minister, Senzo Mchunu, on 2 October 2022, to assure South Africans that the infamous Giyani Water Project will be coming to its finalization.

True to ANC-led government culture, November has come and gone with no water in sight. Today we are sitting with hollow pipes while communities remain desperate for water in these arid parts of Limpopo.

The team and I conducted an in loco site inspection of the Lepelle Northern Water Storage Camp in Hlomo Village, the Department of Water and Sanitation site office in Giyani and Nsami Dam Water Plant, in an effort to assess progress.

Despite assertions made by Mchunu about transparency – both in respect of the progress and financials, we have been denied access to facilities and told by the project manager that they will not share information with us as an oversight body.

The complex nature of the issues in this project is largely due to maladministration and corruption. A project initially envisaged to cost the state millions, is now in the billions.

ActionSA, will now take its findings from yesterday’s in loco site inspection and apply our minds to the way forward for the people of Giyani who have been neglected by Minister Mnchunu and the ANC government he serves.

It cannot be business as usual while children as young as 8 years old bear the burden of walking miles each day to find water in boreholes and ponds.

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